**Status:** Provisional design for focused review. The Owner Brief requires expressive powerful combinations, meaningful horde combat, and equipment competing with salvage for inventory space. It does not settle the build system, starting equipment, oxygen quantities, progression or whether spare canisters share equipment space. Everything below except those requirements and the owner-confirmed journal pause is proposed.
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**Status:** PM provisionally integrated this written design after focused review and author response; gameplay quality remains unvalidated. The Owner Brief requires expressive powerful combinations, meaningful horde combat, and equipment competing with salvage for inventory space. It does not settle the build system, starting equipment, oxygen quantities, progression or whether spare canisters share equipment space. Everything below except those requirements and the owner-confirmed journal pause is proposed.
## Proposed core: a connected effect grammar
@@ 16,7 16,7 @@
Manual activation, a new enemy attack or an ambient hazard is an **external event** and starts a causal wave. Rig-created projectiles, fragments, arcs, barriers and contacts keep that wave identity rather than becoming new external events.
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Within a wave, each part resolves once and a returning signal stops. Force projectiles, pressure bursts, fragments and external strikes against the player or Barrier Plate are impacts; arcs and heat are not unless explicitly converted. Impact Dynamo batches several same-wave impacts into one visible accumulator contribution and emits one downstream packet. Stored states persist across waves with saturation visible; exact capacities and damage remain open.
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Within a wave, each part resolves once and a returning signal stops. Force projectiles, pressure bursts, fragments and external strikes against the player or Barrier Plate are impacts; arcs and heat are not unless explicitly converted. Impact Dynamo batches several same-wave impacts into one visible accumulator contribution and emits one downstream packet. Stored states persist across waves with saturation visible. Releasing stored charge requires a chosen trigger: a manual release starts a new wave, while a release caused by a rig-generated packet retains that packet's wave. Storage becoming ready does not itself create a new external event. Exact capacities and damage remain open.
A later external event begins another wave. Enemy attacks can repeatedly feed Counterwall until attacks stop, the barrier fails or storage saturates. That is an intended horde-fed engine, not recursive self-activation or a balance claim.
@@ 32,7 32,7 @@
## Illustrative parts
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These eight parts demonstrate the grammar; they are not a final catalogue or starting loadout.
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These eight parts demonstrate the grammar; they are not a final catalogue or starting loadout. A compact integrated weapon can combine several roles: the earlier Cargo-Cycler example remains possible, while Salvage Storm below shows a modular expansion.
| Part | Known individual behavior | Different uses it opens |
|---|---|---|
@@ 40,16 40,16 @@
| Impact Dynamo | An impact event emits a charge signal once per causal wave | Projectile engine; barrier counter; salvage-chain bridge |
| Fork Relay | Sends an incoming signal to two valid outputs | Splits offense/defense; charges storage while firing |
| Capacitor | Stores charge across waves and releases it on a chosen trigger | Burst damage; emergency barrier; delayed combo timing |
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| Thermal Lens | Converts incoming charge into heat attached to the next compatible payload | Burning projectile; heated barrier; deliberate vent setup |
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| Thermal Lens | Converts a packet's charge payload into heat while preserving its trigger | Burning projectile; heated barrier; deliberate vent setup |
| Arc Emitter | Converts charge into arcs across nearby targets | Horde clearing; capacitor burst; secondary Fork output |
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| Barrier Plate | A trigger creates a directional barrier; strikes against it produce impact events | Defence; Dynamo trigger surface; route-holding tool |
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| Barrier Plate | A trigger creates a directional barrier; a charged trigger can create or refresh it using that charge; strikes produce impact events | Defence; Dynamo trigger surface; route-holding tool |
| Salvage Cycler | Consumes selected salvage and emits its visible material response | Conductive charge, pressure force or brittle fragments |
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Finding a Capacitor is therefore not a prescribed upgrade. The player can replace an immediate Arc connection with stored burst, bank Barrier energy, or route one Fork branch into storage while the other fires. Installing it now costs room that could carry salvage or an extra canister; carrying it home unopened preserves later options but supplies no present combat power.
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Finding a Capacitor is therefore not a prescribed upgrade. The player can replace an immediate Arc connection with stored burst, bank Barrier energy, or route one Fork branch into storage while the other fires. Taking it occupies room that could carry salvage or an extra canister, whether installed or inactive. Installing it grants present use and commits active rig area and edit time; carrying it home inactive preserves later options without using it now.
## Three materially different paths
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**Cascade lance.** A manual Pulse Projector shot starts a wave; its impact lets Dynamo send a charged trigger through Fork. One branch activates Arc Emitter, the other stores charge. Capacitor release sends charge through Thermal Lens, whose heat payload Projector launches. Sparse targets reduce Arc branching and later impact opportunities, not the basic sequence. Packed hordes may be overwhelmed.
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**Cascade lance.** A manual Pulse Projector shot starts a wave; its impact lets Dynamo send a charged trigger through Fork. One branch activates Arc Emitter, the other stores charge. A later manual Capacitor release starts a new wave; Thermal Lens converts its stored charge into a heat payload that Projector launches. Sparse targets reduce Arc branching and later impact opportunities, not the basic sequence. Packed hordes may be overwhelmed.
**Counterwall reactor.** A manual trigger raises Barrier Plate. Each later enemy strike starts a wave through Dynamo into Capacitor. Stored charge can trigger Barrier or Arc Emitter. The wall becomes protection and engine while a horde attacks; it stops when strikes stop, bypass its facing or break the barrier.
@@ 59,11 59,11 @@
## Acquisition, commitment and return
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Found equipment is readable individually. The player may install it, carry it inactive, leave it or discard something else. Installation grants immediate use but commits active area, carrying capacity and field-edit time. Returned salvage has no currency or automatic upgrade value defined here.
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Found equipment is readable individually. The player may install it, carry it inactive, leave it or discard something else. Taking a new part consumes carrying capacity; installing an already-carried part adds active-area use and field-edit time, not another carrying charge. Returned salvage has no currency or automatic upgrade value defined here.
Hordes test space creation, sustained output and the oxygen-limited return while feeding dense-target chains and barrier impacts. A deliberately assembled build may erase ordinary hordes as payoff. Its real limits are causal shape, carried cost, acquisition and situations it does not address.
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On return, keep the rig and forgo salvage, dismantle a part for a discovery, spend salvage through Cycler, or turn back. Separate spare-canister capacity would preserve equipment-versus-salvage while weakening its oxygen link.
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On return, keep the rig and forgo salvage, leave or discard a part to carry a discovery, spend salvage through Cycler, or turn back. Moving a part into inactive cargo alone frees no carrying capacity. Separate spare-canister capacity would preserve equipment-versus-salvage while weakening its oxygen link.
## Minimum useful expedition after a cached loadout
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- **All gear cached:** the suit baseline permits a useful expedition but not automatic cache recovery. The player can defer, abandon or seek new equipment elsewhere.
- **Paused rewiring exploit:** only the journal pause is owner-required. Field rig changes remain world actions and cannot be completed from its paused diagrams.
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Remaining dependency: the exact capacity model, part availability, cache rules and ship storage determine whether abandonment and recombination stay credible. No owner preference is required before focused review; none of these proposals changes the design-only phase.
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Remaining dependency: the exact capacity model, part availability, cache rules and ship storage determine whether abandonment and recombination stay credible. No owner preference is currently required to keep this proposal provisional; none of these rules changes the design-only phase.
